Parents’ and teachers’ perceptions towards two years pre-primary

Abstract

Holistic development of a child including, physical development, language development and social emotional development are positively related with pre-primary education that facilitate school readiness. The length of pre-primary is an important issue for child development. The govt is planning to pilot two-years preprimary in Bangladesh. This qualitative study explored the perception of teachers and parents about two years pre-primary where 22 participants (12 teachers and 10 parents) participated in In-depth Interview (IDI) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The content analysis technique was used to analysis the data. Findings showed that all participants were aware of early learning and child development of pre-primary age group. All the teachers said that play-based approach was very helpful for teaching-learning activities at pre-primary level. All of them acknowledged the relationship between pre-primary education and school readiness. Teachers knew that the government was planning for two years preprimary but half of the parents knew about the plan. However, the parents appreciated it. Most of parents wanted to send their children to the pre-primary at the age of 4. Most of teachers and some parents supported two years pre-primary, on the other hand one parent preferred one year pre-primary. They also identified some challenges of pre-primary education. In conclusion, the findings of this study will be helpful for the successful implementation of two years preprimary class.